For the Euro-Atlantic capitalist bloc, also known as the West, it has become evident that in their pursuit of wealth and resources, the value of human life often takes a backseat. This sentiment was expressed by President Paul Kagame in a conversation with Steven Clemons, the founding editor of Semafor. President Kagame pointed out that when it comes to Africa, the West prioritizes minerals over values.
This disregard for human lives in pursuit of mineral wealth is not a new phenomenon. As far back as 1899, Joseph Conrad, in his novel “Heart of Darkness,” depicted the events in the Congo as “the vilest race for loot that ever disfigured the history of human consciousness.” Little did Conrad know that this was just the tip of the iceberg in the Congo’s tragic history.
The Congo has endured a long and painful history of theft and conflict. From the era of the slave trade to the brutal Belgian colonization, and later the manipulations of the Cold War and its aftermath, it has been the Congolese citizens who have suffered the most.
And if you think things have changed, think again. On August 30, 2023, in Goma. Over 100 unarmed Congolese civilians were mercilessly killed in Goma on orders of Tshisekedi. This brutal act, intended to prevent a demonstration against the UN in the Democratic Republic of Congo, can only be described as a massacre. Shockingly, the Euro-Atlantic capitalist bloc has remained silent on this issue. Why? Because the Tshisekedi regime, despite its atrocities, has guaranteed international partners access to the Congo’s invaluable reserves of strategic raw materials.
This unspoken truth reveals the West’s true motivation: minerals. For centuries, the Congo has been the feeding ground for the insatiable appetite of the Western world. It began with the supply of slaves for sugar cane plantations, continued with the extraction of rubber for tires, provided uranium for the atomic bomb, and later became the source of coltan for mobile devices. Today, it plays a pivotal role in supplying 60% of the world’s cobalt, a critical component of lithium-ion batteries.
Throughout this sordid history, the Congo has attracted a multitude of actors – over 266 armed groups, more than 80 humanitarian missions, over 20,000 peacekeepers, hundreds of foreign firms, and countless profiteers – all driven by one common objective: the exploitation of the Congo’s vast riches. Regrettably, this relentless pursuit of riches comes at a grave cost to the Congolese populace, who are frequently manipulated into attributing the ills perpetrated by the Euro-Atlantic capitalist bloc to Rwanda, thereby exacerbating their suffering.
ellenkampire